


Yours is a Path I'd Like to Cross

by gwenchou



Category: The X-Files, Twin Peaks
Genre: Aliens and the Black Lodge its gonna be LIT, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Gen, Occasionally veers from canon, Some Humor, Some angst, but honestly everyone suffers a lot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-26
Updated: 2017-09-18
Packaged: 2018-05-29 03:58:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6358153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gwenchou/pseuds/gwenchou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Blue Rose Cases. The X-Files. It's a small world; a couple of notable Special Agents are bound to cross paths some time or another.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Encounter

**Author's Note:**

> Cooper is psychic and Mulder is a jerk.

"Special Agent Mulder!"

Mulder exhaled past clenched teeth at the voice. Outright disagreement, snide remarks, he could handle.

"Mulder!"

But Agent Cooper's unrelenting mock-sincerity always managed to get on his every last nerve.

After mentally counting to five, Mulder turned to face his assailant--the stocky, long-lashed jerk that had haunted him since the day they had met at an academy pre-orientation party. He glared tiredly down his nose at the enthusiastic face of Dale Cooper, who smiled back up at him.

"Agent Mulder!" Cooper repeated in greeting, sticking out a hand for Mulder to shake with more gusto than Mulder thought was possible for a person his size.

"I called your name but I guess you were deep in thought, perfectly understandable, you're a busy man, and I apologize for derailing any trains of thought you might've had." The agent said all in a well-articulated rush, still gripping Mulder's hand in a vice. 

As always, the backhanded, forced friendliness annoyed Mulder. He deliberately pulled his hand away and stuck it in his pocket in hopes of avoiding any further contact. Cooper was too tactile for Mulder's tastes.

Cooper seemed unaffected by the rejection, rocking back on his heels with that thin smug smile that made Mulder want to head staunchly in the opposite direction, or literally anywhere else he could get away from the sight of it.

"Can I help you, Agent Cooper?" Mulder grumbled, making a pointed glance at the clock on the wall. He was reminded absently that he had a report to write up by the end of the week. Even that looked like a good time instead of this surprise encounter.

"I think you just might, Agent Mulder! Y'see, I had this dream..." Mulder's fellow agent spread his hands wide in front of him as if to set the scene, eyes wide and focused in a pantomime of seriousness. Mulder crossed his arms.

"I was trying to walk down a very snowy, steep hill. There was a faint mechanical whirring every time the wind picked up, and the path was slick with oil so I kept losing my bearings--every time I tried to catch myself I would break a finger!" Here he snapped his fingers as if he was trying to snap Mulder out of a trance. "Just like that!"

Mulder raised an eyebrow, unamused. "...And?"

Cooper swallowed and carried on, fervor renewed: "And when I had reached the bottom of the hill, I realized I was standing on a sheet of thin ice. I looked down, and underneath the ice was the face of Camilla Edwards staring back up at me!"

The shorter agent searched Mulder's face for a spark of recognition or interest, and when he got none, continued, "The woman who went missing. Windom and I's current case."

"Oh, right." Mulder grunted in the most apathetic tone he could muster. "Well. Stress dreams are pretty common with new agents."

Cooper's shoulders drooped minutely, disappointment shining clear in his face. "I've been in the bureau for a year and a half now."

Mulder shrugged, catching a glance at his wristwatch. Cooper had successfully wasted ten minutes of both their lives trying to get a cheap rise out of 'Spooky Mulder'. "Still pretty green, relatively speaking. Anything else?"

"It was a very vivid dream, Agent Mulder. I can't help thinking it means something important to the case!" Cooper insisted, hand moving to Mulder's forearm but thought the better of it and returned it to his side. He settled for gazing seriously up at his fellow agent, trepidation lining his tone: "In your professional opinion...Do you think it might be a...vision of some sort? Cast out by Camilla's spirit to help find her body, to put her to rest?"

Mulder felt a nerve jump in his jaw; it clenched tightly at the obvious needling and he ground out: "in my professional opinion, Agent Cooper, you shouldn't eat cheese before bed." He felt a stirring of satisfaction as Cooper dropped his gaze, chastised or at the very least sufficiently embarrassed by the curt response he had received.

"Yes, that must've been it." Cooper conceded quickly, cheeks slightly flushed. "eating before bed. That would be the reasonable explanation, wouldn't it?"

"Yeah. Look, Cooper, I gotta go. I have a meeting with Agent Graham about some psych evals in ten minutes." Mulder glanced pointedly at the clock. If the bastard wanted to waste his time, he'd damn well make him know how much. "Make that four minutes."

Cooper was a damn good actor, Mulder would give him that; the other agent looked so sincerely upset that he had inconvenienced him, Mulder was almost willing to believe he hadn't intended to jerk 'Spooky Mulder's chain. Almost.

"I'm very sorry to have kept you, Agent Mulder. I wouldn't have stopped you if I had known you were in a hurry." Cooper apologized curtly, stepping aside to grant Mulder passage. "I hope you aren't late to your meeting."

With a snort, Mulder started down the hallway. "See you, Cooper."

"Have a good one, Agent Mulder. Sorry for keeping you."

"Yeah. Me too."


	2. Stakeout

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Two agents bond over coffee and difficult relationships.

Scully wasn't normally one for late-night cafe stakeouts, but after the week's case regarding what appeared to be a cannibalistic serial killer--despite Mulder's claims of werewolves--she couldn't quite bring herself to switch her mind off.

So, 1 AM paperwork at Merrie's Cafe it was. It was the only cafe around HQ with decent coffee and a steady supply of cornbread muffins 24/7.

"Excuse me."

Scully jumped in her seat at the sudden voice to her left, nearly slopping a cupful of coffee down her front. She set her mug down, pressed a hand to her chest as if to still her own heart, and turned to regard her companion with a ready frown.

"Special Agent Cooper, what are you doing out at this hour?" She questioned, quickly reeling in any outward signs she had been startled. Cooper seemed an earnest man, but with Mulder whispering distrust of the bureau recently...

Cooper gave an apologetic smile that managed to ease a bit of irritation on Scully's part. "Sorry, Agent Scully. I should've announced myself earlier but you seemed busy. You've got quite the mountain of paperwork before you."

Sighing, Scully arranged a pile of files into the corner of the booth. "I certainly do." She glanced from the papers to Cooper's expectant face; he had paused like a statue, cup of coffee in hand, at the table. A break wouldn't be unwelcome. "Would you like to join me?"

Cooper broke out into his signature megawatt grin. "Agent Scully, I'd be honored." He sidled into the seat across from her and set his coffee carefully apart from any papers. "I just couldn't sleep and I think some company would be just what the doctor ordered."

Scully couldn't help returning a small smile of her own. Cooper's enthusiasm was infectious. "Same here. I figured if I might as well get some work done instead of laying in bed fighting insomnia." She took another sip of her coffee. "But I think I could use a coffee break."

Cooper nodded sagely. "Amen to that. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." He leaned in and added somewhat sheepishly: "I watched The Shining the other day."

Scully snorted. "No wonder why you can't sleep."

"Oh no, that's not it at all, Agent Scully! The reason for my insomnia is quite the opposite." Cooper insisted cheerfully, smiling like a child on Christmas again. He glanced down to the basket of muffins before them for a moment before redirecting his gaze on Scully, appearing genuinely interested. "But first: how has work been treating you?"

Scully caught on and pushed the basket toward her fellow agent in offering. Cooper's face lit up immediately; he snatched a muffin and began to spread butter across its surface, though his eyes remained on Scully as he waited for her answer.

"I won't lie, it's been a tough week. Mulder managed to land himself in the hospital with another broken arm, but he's healing up well." She didn't mention the arm had been broken protecting her from a steel mallet directed at her head, feeling a lump of guilt rise in her throat at the thought. "That's mainly what the papers here are for. Injuries sustained on the job and so on."

Cooper frowned sympathetically around a mouthful of cornbread. After swallowing, he spoke in a quiet emphatic tone: "Agent Scully, please give Agent Mulder my very best wishes for recovery. He's a strong man, I'm sure he doesn't need them, but my position stands."

Cooper's straightforward yet kindly nature was a welcome relief after wading through dangerous lies day by day, and Scully found herself warming to him quickly. Mulder had made his less than stellar opinion on Cooper known to her on more than one occasion, but Scully hadn't detected a note of sarcasm in Cooper's tone so far. Perhaps Mulder had misread him; even talented psychoanalysts could be wrong on occasion.

"I'll tell him. thank you, Agent Cooper." Scully replied with a grateful half-smile that was quickly returned in full by her companion.

"Thank you, Agent Scully. Now, how is that X-file business going?" He asked, taking another muffin and slathering it with butter.

Scully felt her face fall at the mention of the X-files. She should've braced herself for it: the inevitable mockery and her unfathomable responding defense of Mulder's work.

Sensing Scully's defenses rising, Cooper quickly washed down his food with a gulp of coffee and spoke, his tone almost urgent in its sincerity: "You and Agent Mulder are doing important work with the X-files, Agent Scully. I mean that. I think my interest was mistaken for mockery by Mulder, and I want nothing more than to dismiss that idea." He didn't smile at Scully's raised eyebrows and continued, more serious than she had ever seen him: "There are things I've seen that cannot be explained away with what we know of science, Agent Scully."

Suddenly embarrassed by his scrutiny, Scully stared down at her coffee. "Mulder would be flattered to hear that, I'm sure."

Cooper nodded slowly, leaning back in his seat. He looked away, and for a moment Scully could recognize the conviction in his eyes that mirrored what she had seen in Mulder's.

She cleared her throat. "To answer your question, the X-files aren't gaining Mulder and I any credit from the bureau, but they aren't taking any away, either. I'm not sure whether it's a losing battle or not."

"The X-files mean there's still much to be discovered. Don't give up yet."

The intensity of Cooper's faraway gaze made Scully vaguely unsettled, as if she was spying on a prophet receiving a vision.

However, the look soon faded and Cooper returned his gaze to her with a boyish smile, previous gravity removed from his features. "Agent Scully, have you ever been in love?"

The change in tone surprised Scully, but she covered her expression with a sip of her drink. The pause gave her time to recover and respond appropriately. when she set her cup down, she was calm again. "Why do you ask?"

Cooper chuckled, shoulders releasing the sudden tension of their previous conversation. "I'm sorry, that was a strange question to ask out of the blue. It's just--" He halted mid-thought, holding a hand out as if to physically stop his sentence in its tracks. He then swiftly folded his arms and leaned over the table toward his companion, the excitable grin from before making a reappearance. "Can you keep a secret, Agent Scully?"

Scully couldn't resist leaning in, mimicking his sudden half-hearted secrecy. She was excited to hear whatever Cooper had to say, despite herself. "What is it?"

"I'm seeing someone. A beautiful, elegant woman named Caroline." Cooper said all in an enamored rush, "her intelligence and kindness knows no bounds, Agent Scully, and I'll be the first to admit I am well and truly smitten with her."

Scully quirked a small smile at the admission; Cooper couldn't have been more than a year or two older than herself but he was so genuine in his adoration that he seemed far younger than his years. The way he wore his heart on his sleeve was endearing, a welcome change to all the secrecy the X-files brought.

"Good for you." She chuckled, swirling the dregs of her coffee in her mug before meeting his eyes again. "Where'd you two meet?"

It seemed as if all the energy went out of Cooper in an instant. He froze, then drew back slowly, robotically. He rubbed his palms together as if to warm himself, speaking: "My partner, Windom...he introduced us." He blew out a harsh breath. "I still haven't told him about us. Caroline and I."

Confused at the sudden shift, Scully raised an eyebrow. "And you think he won't take the news well? That he might be jealous?"

She knew little of Windom Earle aside from his sparse involvement with the X-files once upon a time, that he possessed the finest mind in chess anyone in the bureau had ever seen, and he was a master of disguises. He seemed a good-tempered man to Scully, if a bit eccentric. 

"Jealous, yes." Cooper huffed out a dry laugh. "I think I can expect no small amount of jealousy."

Scully frowned. "Well, it isn't any business of his what you do with your time outside the bureau. It isn't healthy to be too invested in your partner's personal life."

Like you're one to talk, a small voice in the back of her mind whispered. It sounded suspiciously like Mulder.

Cooper sighed again, folding his hands. "That's certainly true, but...it's a very complicated situation, Agent Scully, and I'm not quite sure I know how to best proceed."

Scully restrained her desire to lecture or pry by finishing off her mug of coffee. The waitress, a haggard-looking young blonde, moved to refill it as soon as she set the mug down, but Scully shook her head. The waitress merely shrugged and returned to wiping the countertops.

"Agent Cooper, if I may...I've found that in most cases, honesty really is the best policy." Scully paused, gauging Cooper's expression before going on. "The way I see it, it's like when a perp withholds evidence to cover their tracks--it only comes back to bite them later."

Cooper nodded in agreement, rubbing at his chin. "I see what you mean. Hiding it will only make things worse." He sighed softly and folded his hands. "Knowing Windom, he probably knows everything already."

"Even so, I think he'd appreciate hearing it from you."

"I believe you're right, Agent Scully."

For the first time in their meeting there was a lull in conversation where Cooper sipped thoughtfully at his coffee and Scully nibbled on a muffin.

However, the silence didn't last long. Cooper's energy soon returned in full force and he sat up suddenly from his seat with a hand extended to Scully. "Agent Scully, you have been outstanding company this evening and I wish you all the best, but I really must be on my way."

Scully blinked, again startled at the shift in tone, but accepted his handshake none the less. "Uh, same to you, Agent Cooper."

Cooper grinned down at her, giving her hand a friendly squeeze. "Let's not wait till the next chance encounter to talk again! I'll give you my card." He pressed the slip of paper into her palm and patted the back of her hand. "Here's hoping the Sandman makes his way to you soon."

Scully gave a little chuckle at that. "Thanks for keeping me company tonight. Good luck with Caroline."

Still grinning, Cooper nodded. "Thank you. Good luck with Agent Mulder."

Before Scully could question him on the meaning behind his words, the agent was already gone, rotating doors spinning behind him.

Scully exhaled a fond sigh. A man like that truly does deserve the best of luck, she thought, pulling a file toward her and beginning to write. He'll be fine.


	3. Nightmares

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cooper confides in his fellow agents with limited success.

"I'm in an old hotel room, the smell of which is distinctly the sort that a startled ladybug releases when you touch it. It soon becomes overpowering and I move to open the door to let some fresh air in, but a wave of pink-tinged water pours in, covering me up to the waist by the time I can close the door again."

He pauses, collecting himself.

"I hear a scream--the scream of a dying animal--coming from the bathroom, but when I move to walk toward it, I feel as if I'm walking through tar...I look into the mirror across the room to see my chest is soaked through with blood, but when I feel for myself, it's dry. I manage to make it to the bathroom, and I see--Caroline laying in the bathroom, the tub far past overflowing. Her chest has been pulled open and the cavity is empty. I try to resuscitate her, unsuccessfully of course, and eventually I collapse into the water on the floor. After the first inhalation, I woke up."

A beat.

"Agent Mulder, Agent Scully--I have reason to believe this was not simply a dream, that Caroline is in very real danger." Cooper spoke hurriedly, his hands clenched so tightly at his sides that his knuckles stood out harshly against his skin. His posture exuded desperate defiance, like an innocent man being led to the guillotine. "I thought like you two were my best bet for help, or advice. Either would be welcome."

Mulder was less than sympathetic, only granting the bare minimum of acknowledgement by moving his feet from resting on his desk to the floor. Scully remained silent and standing, arms crossed but eyes filled with concern.

"So, what, you think this was a vision?" Mulder drawled, "like the one you had about Camilla Edwards? Who, if memory serves correctly, wasn't found trapped under a frozen lake like in your dream but in pieces in her ex-husband's auto-shop beer cooler?"

Cooper hesitated, jaw tightening, but nodded. "Yes. I had the same feeling about that dream as I did for this one."

"So why would you be right this time?" Mulder challenged coolly, tapping his pencil against his desk. "Since your last prophecy was a bust."

Cooper ducked his head to stare, emotions unfathomable, at the ground. Scully thought for a moment he would lose his temper, but when he raised his eyes again he seemed determined, not angry. "Agent Mulder, I can understand your trepidation, but I'm not asking you for your undivided belief. I'm asking for an interpretation. Something to help me make sense of whatever I saw."

Scully looked between the two men, making sure to fix Mulder with a raised eyebrow. Give him the benefit of the doubt. I know you don't like him, but...

Mulder caught her meaning and huffed, setting his pencil down. He's full of shit, Scully, but fine, I'll bite. 

He redirected his attention to the matter and leaned forward, making sure to convey his disbelief as clearly as possible in his tone. "Alright, Agent Cooper. What I think you're looking at would be, hypothetically, a warning from your subconscious about Caroline being in danger. Not from murder, necessarily, but chest-related trauma. Does she have any health issues that you know of?"

Cooper frowned. "She had polio as a child, but that only left a faint limp."

"Have you been worried that she's been seeing someone else? It's not uncommon for the chest to be a symbol for love in dreams."

At the resulting silence and the sudden lack of colour in Cooper's cheeks, Mulder cast a conspiratorial glance in Scully's direction. He's hiding something.

Scully subtly inclined her chin in a nod before turning to Cooper. "Agent Cooper, is there anything you could tell us that would give some context to your dream?"

Cooper's mouth opened and closed twice as if to speak before finally coming forth, his voice quiet but enunciated as ever. "Caroline recently bore witness to a gruesome federal crime that has placed her in Windom and I's protective custody. We felt that the criminal would not allow a witness to live, so we're keeping a close eye on her till he's behind bars." Here he paused, considering whether or not to share the next piece of information.

"But?" Scully prompted.

"Caroline is Windom's wife. Of two years." Cooper supplied haltingly, gripping his suit pockets as if to ground himself. Mulder's eyebrows rose in mild surprise that someone as morally upright as Cooper have the gall to commit adultery, but Scully kept her expression neutral.

"You're also concerned that with the three of you in such close quarters, Agent Earle will find you out and be upset, compromising the mission." Scully concluded with a short sigh, to which Cooper nodded. 

"Yes. And I get the distinct impression that my dream had something to do with Windom finding out--something in the way that ladybug smell lingered in the room." He added, looking between the two agents for a helpful response.

Mulder had none to give, leaning back in his seat with a pencil balancing on his chest. "As far as I know, the ladybug is a symbol of good luck and material wealth, so maybe this is actually a happy dream and you'll end up getting a Christmas bonus. Who knows." He smiled thinly, leaning further back. "Windom does have a nasty temper, though. Played chess with him once and thought he was gonna jam a knight in my eye when I took one of his pawns. But that's nothing compared to someone taking his wife right under his nose, right?"

"Mulder," Scully chided sharply, embarrassed on Cooper's behalf.

To his credit, Cooper did no more than frown. "You're right, Agent Mulder. But when you're in love--"

"The rules don't apply to you?" Mulder suggested glibly, mimicking his partner's closed-off posture. "Love conquers all even during a federal investigation?"

"Mulder, enough." Scully intervened, but Cooper held up a hand, still managing to remain stoic even in the face of Mulder's taunting. It took a special person to resist her partner's taunts, Scully thought, as it was known to be Mulder's primary form of getting attention--a remnant of his neglectful childhood, perhaps.

"It's alright, Agent Scully." Cooper answered curtly, "your partner speaks only the truth." He paused to regard his shoes a moment before speaking up again, though now his voice was quiet with a vein of tension running beneath. "Agent Mulder, I know you don't care much for me, though I don't know why. All I ask is that you help me. No one else here would believe me if I told them." He looked from Scully to Mulder. "If not for me, then for Caroline's sake."

Silence pervaded the basement office until Mulder spoke again, eyes focused blithely on Cooper: "What do you want us to do?"

The question seemed to catch Cooper off-guard. He tucked in his lower lip and stared hard at his shoes before finally uttering, "I don't know."

Scully watched her fellow agent accept defeat and felt her chest tighten in sympathy. Truthfully, there was nothing she and Mulder could do for Cooper without or without hard evidence; they couldn't drop their work to guard Caroline until Windom acted on his jealousy, and even then Witness Protection was far from their jurisdiction. It occurred to Scully that, like Mulder, perhaps Cooper just needed someone to believe.

It hurt Scully to know she and Mulder could not, though for differing reasons. It was simply too far fetched--Cooper's claims of prophecy were vague at best, and the idea that Windom would attempt murder during an investigation already involving his wife was highly unlikely. Windom was a professional, Scully knew, and wouldn't risk his entire career just to fulfill a vendetta...

Would he? The doubts reeled in Scully's mind until Cooper lifted his head with a hard frown, drawing both Mulder and Scully's attention.

"Agents, I hope that--well. Thank you for your help. I wish you both the best of luck." Cooper spoke haltingly, as if deep emotion lay just beneath his controlled exterior. He moved to the door. "And I'm very sorry to have bothered you."

"I'm sorry we couldn't be of more help, Agent Cooper. Take care." Scully replied, choosing her words carefully. Mulder just nodded, having returned to being deep in thought.

"I'll try." Cooper murmured, his hand gripping the doorknob tightly before turning it. It seemed for a moment as if he was on the verge of turning around, begging for help, tears maybe, but restrained the impulse at the last second and showed himself out of the basement office.

Scully sighed and turned to Mulder. "I didn't know what to say." She admitted quietly as she began sorting files.

Mulder shrugged, joining her at the file cabinets. "I never do."


End file.
